StreetShares Blog

The Resource Center for Veteran Small Businesses

Mark L. Rockefeller, Co-Founder & CEO

Mark L. Rockefeller is the Co-Founder & CEO of StreetShares, Inc., a venture-backed startup that uses social trust to derisk the lending industry. He is also a contributor to Forbes, writing on entrepreneurship, fintech, and veteran-owned businesses.
Mark began his career as a military officer, attorney, and federal prosecutor. Following military service in Iraq and a social enterprise project in Africa, he joined the Wall Street law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP. He left the firm to co-found StreetShares in 2013. StreetShares launched in 2014, has raised over $200MM in debt and equity investment, and beat nearly 200 startups to win the 2015 global "Best Investment" award from the Harvard Business School New Venture Competition.
Mark has been listed as a "40 Under 40" entrepreneur, and has been quoted or featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Businessweek, Huffington Post, American Banker, Washington Business Journal, INC., and Entrepreneur Magazine. He holds a bachelor's degree in finance, MBA and law degrees. He was a Stone Scholar at Columbia Law School and is a term member in the Council on Foreign Relations.

It has a proven track record of teaching leadership, strategic planning, creative problem-solving, task execution, and resiliency—all traits essential to business ownership. It is not a fancy MBA or university program.

The organization is the United States military.

For many years, military veterans have become entrepreneurs at a much higher rate than non-veterans. Indeed, a shocking 49% of World War II veterans went on to own or operate their own businesses, according to a study from Syracuse University.

In the modern era, an exciting veterans’ entrepreneurship movement is once again spreading across America. These so-called “vetrepreneurs” are thriving. They have their own accelerators and incubators, their own venture capitalists, their own support organizations and coaches, and even their own Shark Tank stars (shout out to Navy SEAL-led Bottle Breacher and Army Ranger-led Combat Flip Flops).

| StreetShares Blog

I’m one of the 2.5 million veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan. I’m also an entrepreneur. And I’m not alone. The men and women of today’s armed services are uniquely positioned to become successful veteran entrepreneurs.

To my fellow veterans:

You have what it takes.

By nature of your military service, you possess the skills that are required to run your own business. As a Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine, you learned the importance of communication, focus, and drive to accomplish the mission at hand. You’ve encountered problems that need to be solved on the fly and you’ve done so instinctively. Recall one of the earliest reports from Operation Enduring Freedom: U.S. special operations forces in Afghanistan coordinated precision airstrikes from laptops on horseback—21st Century technology met old-fashioned creativity to get the job done. That’s called entrepreneurship.

| StreetShares Blog

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com on December 21, 2017. See the original publicationhere.

Hang out with entrepreneurs long enough and you notice patterns.

At StreetShares, we fund thousands of veteran-owned small businesses. I’ve noticed many successful veteran-owned small businesses are run by veterans from elite special operations units. These elite units include the Navy SEALs, Army Special Forces (“Green Berets”), Marine Corps’ MARSOC (formerly “Force Recon”), Army Rangers, and others. Units like this are selective and tough. The warriors in these units are highly trained and, as a result, they are given liberties and discretion that other military units do not have.

| StreetShares Blog

This article originally appeared on Forbes.com on June 21, 2018. See the original publicationhere.

In running StreetShares, I get to meet great entrepreneurial teams. One thing I've noticed is that military veterans-turned-entrepreneurs have a unique tenacity and skillset. They apply what they learned in combat and they win in entrepreneurship.

But the best “vetrepreneurs” also have a secret ability: they possess the humility to understand that they don’t know everything, and they need to partner with more experienced entrepreneurs to win.

| StreetShares Blog

He's a Marine Corps veteran who owns a sizable chunk of the real estate rental market in the same Texas town where he once picked up cans on the side of the road to make money.

His path to prosperity has been hard-fought and incremental: he has launched multiple successful companies, closed over $250,000,000 of real estate finance transactions, personally invested in over 100 real estate deals, and is currently hosting a TV show for HGTV, Flip or Flop Fort Worth.

| StreetShares Blog

The US Navy Blue Angels numbers 5 and 6 fly near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California as part of a practice run for Fleet Week on October 6, 2016. / AFP / JOSH EDELSON (Photo credit should read JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images)

I recently read a list of the 10 best cities to launch a startup. It included the places you’d expect: Silicon Valley, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Tel Aviv, London, Chicago, Seattle, Berlin and Singapore.

My co-founder and I launched our startup, StreetShares, outside of Washington, DC, which was not on the list. For two years now, people have been telling us to move our company to Silicon Valley. Even now, I write this article on a plane heading back from investor meetings in San Francisco where we were told we should move, yet again. We’ve resisted.

Here’s why many entrepreneurs, particularly “vetrepreneurs” (those with military experience like us), choose to launch their startups away from the conventional hotspots.

| StreetShares Blog

When I was a kid, I had an older cousin. I looked up to her. She was cool, and she could do things I couldn’t do. I learned by watching her.

Investment crowdfunding has an older cousin, too. Her name is peer-to-peer lending. And she has a few lessons for the emerging investment crowdfunding industry.

Lesson 1: If You’re Solving a Market Need, Everything Else Will Work Out

JOBS Act Title III investment crowdfunding went live just a few months ago. Already some are trumpeting its death. One example is a TechCrunch article "Equity Crowdfunding is Dead” by contributor Ryan Caldbeck.

To channel Mark Twain: reports of crowdfunding’s death are greatly exaggerated.

Many of us know the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day (hint: Memorial Day is next Monday and remembers those who have died in military service; Veterans’ Day is in November and celebrates all veterans).

StreetShares, Inc. (the "Company") has qualified with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") for a Regulation A offering of StreetShares Notes, also known as "Veteran Business Bonds." The only offering to sell securities is found in the Company's Form 1-A and amendments and supplements thereto (collectively, the "Offering Statement"), which can be obtained from the SEC EDGAR filing website. No decision to invest in StreetShares Notes should be made without reading the Offering Statement. Neither the SEC nor any state securities regulator has passed upon or endorsed the merits of any investment decision in StreetShares. The Company does not give investment, legal, or tax advice. You are urged to consult your investment, legal, and tax professional before making any investment decision. Note: The default term for StreetShares Notes is 36 months, with the option for the Company to call, redeem, or prepay at any time. This offering is being conducted as a continuous offering pursuant to Rule 251(d)(3) of the Securities Act, meaning that while the offering of securities is continuous, sales of securities may happen sporadically over the term of the offering as we are able to process subscriptions. As a result, the active solicitation of investors, whether via the StreetShares platform or otherwise, may at times be briefly paused, or the ability to subscribe may be periodically restricted to certain individuals to allow the Company time to effectively and accurately process and settle subscriptions that have been received. Subject to SEC Rule 251(d)(2)(i)(C), non-accredited investors who are natural persons are limited to investing the greater of 10% of their annual income or net worth and non-accredited investors who are non-natural persons are limited to investing up to 10% of the greater of their net assets or revenues for the most recently completed fiscal year. Additionally, the Company's current per-person minimum investment amount is $25 and the maximum is $500,000 (subject to adjustment through the StreetShares Referral Program). The Company's minimum and maximum investment amounts are subject to change at the Company's discretion. StreetShares Notes are a non-deposit investment product. Not FDIC insured. No guarantee. May lose value. StreetShares authorizes bank accounts by using a third party vendor, Plaid. StreetShares does not capture or retain any Member's bank account login information, nor is any account login information transmitted to StreetShares in any way. By agreeing to use Plaid, you agree to their terms and conditions and privacy policy, which may not be the same as StreetShares' Member Agreement and Privacy Policy.